A metallic pipe or a metallic plate has wide application in the industry. Especially, a metallic pipe or a metallic plate may be used as a heat pipe or a heat plate. The heat pipe is a pipe for transferring heat efficiently, and its main body may be made of copper, stainless steel, ceramics, tungsten, or the like while its inner wall may be made of a porous fiber. Further, a material such as methanol, acetone, water or mercury may be used as a volatile material in the inside of the heat pipe.
By way of example, the heat pipe may be used in a waste heat collecting device, an air conditioning and cooling system, a solar energy collector, a cooling system of an atomic reactor, and so forth, and also be used for cooling an electronic component and device, for cooling an electric motor, for local heating and heat control, for heat control of a satellite, a flying vehicle, cooling systems and so forth.
In its wide application examples, the heat pipe exhibits many advantages in that it is capable of transferring high-density heat effectively while reducing power consumption and weight and volume of an apparatus.
Recently, there has been an increasing demand for a heat pipe domestically considering energy reduction, development and usage of alternative energy, and the necessity for cooling and reducing the size of electronic appliances and electric devices.
In this regard, there has been a demand for a method for manufacturing a heat pipe having high heat transfer efficiency and high reliability with low cost by processing a surface of a metallic member such as a metallic pipe or a metallic plate to use it as a heat pipe or a heat plate. For the purpose, using a method for improving heat transfer efficiency and reliability by coating a surface of a metallic pipe or a metallic plate with such a material as graphene has yet to be reported, and, besides, a continuous process for coating the graphene on the surface of the metallic pipe or the metallic plate and an apparatus therefor have yet to be reported, either.